Computer Hardware (2)

This is often due to dust and fluff getting in to critical areas, around the CPU, Video Card and controller chips, which normally generate a lot of heat.

Web South often get computers in which are running slow, and generally suspected of being infected by viruses. Quite often that is the case, but occasionally the main cause has been OVERHEATING.

Most computer systems/subsystems have been designed to check what temperature they are working at. When they detect that they are too hot (for thier nomal operating parameters) – SOME – slow thier operation down to reduce the amount of heat that they produce, in an effort to keep going yet reduce the chance of damage. OTHERS may just keep going until they overheat and fail.

SOLUTIONS:

Keep your computer in a clean environment to start with and reduce the risk.

Arrange with Web South to have a maintenance service on your computer. We suggest yearly is beneficial and that its best to do it before the weather gets too hot.

Listen to your computer – if you hear fans going harder than normal MORE OFTEN then you can suspect there may be an issue. Contact Web South.

Check if any fans are working. Sometimes we find they have frozen solid or hardly turning, which doesnt help the cooling process at all. Usually this is from a giant amount of fluff or sometimes the fan has siezed up (bearings not working).

If you have a Notebook, Ultrabook or Tablet then you should have a cooling pad / fan. This is especially so for any which have the more powerful CPU’s and graphips cards in them.

Of course – VIRUSES/TROJANS often play a big part in things and they can also cause your computer to work much harder and cause problems too. Again Web South can help.

We recently set up a new computer system ‘on-site’ and were perplexed to hear the speakers buzzing. Tried rerouting the wiring, different power outlet etc. No change. The buzzing did seem to vary as we moved around the room.

It turned out that it was being caused by certain mobile phones – especially when in this case the location was on the edge of Mobile Phone signals. Mobile phones continue to try call back to base if they loose signal. They switch back to slower and more powerful signals when they have trouble connecting. Some phones switch right back to GSM – and here lies the problem.

The reason of audio amplifiers being hit by GSM signal is that contemporary audio semiconductor parts are actually very functional up to high GHz range. For GSM-800-900MHz range any 80mm copper trace works like 1/4 wave antenna, or stripline resonator. The signal is AM detected on any non-linearity (transistors or diode structures in chips) on multiple points of amplifier simultaneously, also including power regulator chips and so on.

It is translated into audio range as tiny but very sharp and periodic dips or pops of averaged conductivity of non-linear parts (AM detection), which are DC powered.

Think of low speed oscilloscope trace showing straight line with beads of UHF flashes. Simple sharp spikes of consumed DC current will become audible with amplifier.” – Rocket Surgeon

This message has been on the Web South cPanel admin page for a long time. It may not be relevant now.

One interesting thing has been that some members are now choosing to have different cPanel “themes (Skins)”.
One advantage I have seen from these themes is that I can deliver better news items direct to your cPanel.
Its not a problem for regular X theme members (where this message is going) – I just wanted to let you know there are other themes available.
A word of caution, some features may not be available in other themes (I notice that Fantastico is not shown in the “Light” RVSkins).

We consider this is ‘BAD’ as it has several problems.

It exposes your yourself, your business and your clients, customers or friends to risks that need not be with a little bit of extra effort.

Here are a few ways this happens:

PRIVACY:

This is especially important for businesses and organisations. To send out a list of all your mailing list to every single person exposes every one of them to the list. This is a big privacy issue to be avoided at all costs. Making this mistake can cost business (customer abandons you) or on some occasions can expose secrets or things you didn’t want pople to know (such as only having a small customer base – when you are trying to project bigger things). It could expose a member on the list to be harrassed or scammed. It could expose your business to a competitor who could market to your list.

Maybe Not (Sometimes) – There are times when in a small group – perhaps a committee where everyone is working together can sometimes benefit with all the emails exposed – it can for instance mean each recipient is able to keep up with the latest email address of each one and if needed click on and email an invividual.
The essential thing is that this should be a concential list and recipients should be aware to remove the email list before forwarding it on anywhere else.

SECURITY:

One of the main issues is of security. Exposing your email list has the potential to land all the emails in the hands of SPAMMERS and SCAMMERS. You may not do this directly.

One of the ways this often happens is when a recipent is infected with viruses/trojans etc which allow the harvesting of emails – and your list gets picked up on that list. Every member on the list is then exposed to multiple problems.

This could be from a direct recipient or if one of the recipients forwards on to one or more addresses the list could end up on SPAM lists which can be sold far and wide.

Hackers love them as they can harvest the addresses and ‘sell them’ to marketers (both shady and bad – good marketers would not buy a list like this).

RESPECT:

By using BCC you are respecting peoples privacy and safety. You really do want to keep people happy.

How do you BCC an email message?

Most email clients have the option to BCC listed a few lines below the To: field.
Sometimes it may not listed by default. If it is not shown, check the help menu or the the program’s documentation.

Hint:

When BCC’ing recipients you should have something in the To: field,
This may be your own email address or one especially set up for the purpose.
This method not only hides the identity of the recipients, but enables you to confirm that the message was sent successfully.

Don’t forget to put a descriptive ‘Subject’ in the subject line – so the email is less likely to end up in SPAM filters and more likely to be read by the recipient.

It is beleived that Outlook Express is no longer safe to use. Microsoft have not updated it for many years now (2012),
Unfortunately that may mean it is vulnerable to virus or other attack.
We suggest that you either upgrade to Microsoft Office, or use the free Windows Live Mail.

General Settings & Setup (1)

We recently set up a new computer system ‘on-site’ and were perplexed to hear the speakers buzzing. Tried rerouting the wiring, different power outlet etc. No change. The buzzing did seem to vary as we moved around the room.

It turned out that it was being caused by certain mobile phones – especially when in this case the location was on the edge of Mobile Phone signals. Mobile phones continue to try call back to base if they loose signal. They switch back to slower and more powerful signals when they have trouble connecting. Some phones switch right back to GSM – and here lies the problem.

The reason of audio amplifiers being hit by GSM signal is that contemporary audio semiconductor parts are actually very functional up to high GHz range. For GSM-800-900MHz range any 80mm copper trace works like 1/4 wave antenna, or stripline resonator. The signal is AM detected on any non-linearity (transistors or diode structures in chips) on multiple points of amplifier simultaneously, also including power regulator chips and so on.

It is translated into audio range as tiny but very sharp and periodic dips or pops of averaged conductivity of non-linear parts (AM detection), which are DC powered.

Think of low speed oscilloscope trace showing straight line with beads of UHF flashes. Simple sharp spikes of consumed DC current will become audible with amplifier.” – Rocket Surgeon

General Setup (1)

If you ever need to test the current speed of your internet connection and perhaps also want to send it to someone (we sometimes request this to help us support you), the following steps are one way of doing so:

The test may take a while, once it is done you will see scores for your connection speed appear where the begin test button was originally. Press the SHARE THIS RESULT button as shown below.Please Note: The speeds below are given as an example only, the results you receive may vary.

Below the button will appear options for sharing your results, to send your results to someone press the COPY button shown below, paste the link into a new email and send it.

Internet (1)

If you ever need to test the current speed of your internet connection and perhaps also want to send it to someone (we sometimes request this to help us support you), the following steps are one way of doing so:

The test may take a while, once it is done you will see scores for your connection speed appear where the begin test button was originally. Press the SHARE THIS RESULT button as shown below.Please Note: The speeds below are given as an example only, the results you receive may vary.

Below the button will appear options for sharing your results, to send your results to someone press the COPY button shown below, paste the link into a new email and send it.

Office Related Software (1)

You have downloaded one of our forms or reports or even our invoices as a PFD and it does not display.

Some information & forms are in Abode Acrobat PDF file format.

There could be a variety of reasons you are having trouble, some being:

The computer does not have a PDF reader installed and running,Download and Install one of the PDF readers suggested (or any of your choice)

The PDF reader is not up-to-date and unable to read the format this file is in,Download the latest version solves this most times.

The file may not have downloaded properly?Try downloading the file again. If this doesnt work – try clearing the computers CACHE, and then try again.

It downloaded and you have a Acrobat Reader screen, but document is blankUPDATE to the latest version should solve this.

Your Default Browser might be at faultthere are several alternative browsers to mention,Chrome (Google) FireFox, Opera.Another alternative to try is to SAVE the PDF to your local disk storage such as a hard drive, then use your file explorer to browse to that file and try loading it from there. (this will eliminate a problem with the browser.

Your Virus Checker or Browser might prevent Pop-upsSometimes certain software can block pop-ups from working (as security setting), On the website we display our PDF’s in a new window and this can sometimes be taken as a pop-up. You should allow this window to display. You could make the website a “trusted” site.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.Downloading a PDF Reader

Adobe PDF Readerhttp://www.adobe.com

If you do not have Acrobat Reader, please visit the Adobe Website for a free
download. Warning – the latest version is 41 mb in size.

Or tryFOXIT READER

If you prefer to have an also FREE but MUCH SMALLER DOWNLOAD (yet just as good) PDF
Reader why not try “Foxit Reader”.

It is only about 3.5 ~ 7 mb in download size (depending on package downloaded).

Get the latest version from here
Download Page at www.foxitsoftware.com
– we suggest you choose the installer package which suits your needs best.

I was having the same error on my computer as well. I picked up a comment on another forum website for an older problem and their problem seemed to be created by having the Windows Firewall Service disabled in the Services and Applications> Services section. I found when I set Windows Firewall service back to automatic and Started it, I was then able to go to the service Homegroup Listener and I changed that service to Automatic and was able to then Start Homegroup Listener.

This at least was a fix I could do without risk to my system as the changes would have been easy to reverse, but they worked for me. Maybe others can try that and post back here with their results.

Support for Windows Vista without any service packs installed ended on April 13, 2010.
To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure you’re running Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2). For more information, refer to this Microsoft web page: Support is ending for some versions of Windows

You will find this in your Admin Panel under Dashboard, Updates.
You should see a message like this example below

An updated version of WordPress is available.

You can update to WordPress 3.5.1 automatically or download the package and install it manually:

In this example the update is for version 3.5.1 and if you click on the link (on the one in your admin panel) it will load the information about this update in your default browser. The web page will list various things – take note of any warnings which may affect you.
The web page also has links to other helpful documentation if you are new.

BEFORE UPDATING WORDPRESS.

We recommend making sure all your plugins are updated prior to the WordPress update.WARNING: If you have a plugin such as AskApache Password Protect active which prevents changes to your files – you will need to temporarily disable it while doing these updates (and the same for WordPress).

For safety – make sure you have a child theme (for atahualpa) active(or you will lose any code updates/changes to the website).

Make a backup of your database. Your WordPress installation should have a plugin named WordPress Database Backup activated and you should be able to go to your Admin Panel in WordPress and access it via Admin panel Tools, Backup.

Make sure you have a BACKUP of any custom graphics in the WordPress Theme.
(these files are not backed up with the WordPress Database Backup plugin).

they should be in the path wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images
and Header Graphics in

wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/header

(We recommend an FTP program such as Filezilla to copy these files from your website.
It is well worth noting which folders they come from when you store them locally).

If you are unsure which are your custom graphics (they are located in a folder full of other graphics) then please ask your web designer (most times this will be Web South) and they should advise you.

Make sure you have your FTP pogram set up to access your WordPress website. (You will need access to the cPanel UserName and Password to do this).

Disable Plugins – (Optional)
You don’t have to do this, but every now and again a plugin hasn’t been updated to work with the latest version of WordPress, and causes a problem after the upgrade. Head to the Manage Plugins page in the Dashboard,
Take not of any plugins which are NOT Activated (but installed). Changing the “Bulk Actions” pull down menu to “Deactivate” and clicking “Apply”.

This one is a bit ‘Tricky’. DO you have any plugins loaded which prevent changes to your site? (makes the site much more secure – but if you forget that you have – you will most likely see some kind of error message).
If so – you will need to disable them for the moment.
eg AskApache Password Protect

UPDATE WORDPRESS

Update WordPress. We find that updating via Update Automatically in your Admin Panel works find (having taken note of any issues at the documentation Check the documentation for the WordPress update.

Note: It may also be related to WordPress versions from 3.4 on but this is unclear.

“Ajax Event Calendar requires a city value for the Timezone setting.Not all cities are listed. Can’t find your city in the timezone dropdown?… Search for your standardized timezone..Update Blog Settings“.

First: Find your Timezone string.

You should be able to use this resource:

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Drill down until you find your closest city.

for instance here is ours

Australia/Adelaide (Not a bad idea to COPY this so you dont make mistakes later)

Next:

When you go to the Admin Panel Settings Page you don’t find a place to choose or enter the City valueIt is not normally exposed

First enter the URL manually to see ALL WordPress settings – TAKE GREAT CAUTION HERE!!!

We consider this is ‘BAD’ as it has several problems.

It exposes your yourself, your business and your clients, customers or friends to risks that need not be with a little bit of extra effort.

Here are a few ways this happens:

PRIVACY:

This is especially important for businesses and organisations. To send out a list of all your mailing list to every single person exposes every one of them to the list. This is a big privacy issue to be avoided at all costs. Making this mistake can cost business (customer abandons you) or on some occasions can expose secrets or things you didn’t want pople to know (such as only having a small customer base – when you are trying to project bigger things). It could expose a member on the list to be harrassed or scammed. It could expose your business to a competitor who could market to your list.

Maybe Not (Sometimes) – There are times when in a small group – perhaps a committee where everyone is working together can sometimes benefit with all the emails exposed – it can for instance mean each recipient is able to keep up with the latest email address of each one and if needed click on and email an invividual.
The essential thing is that this should be a concential list and recipients should be aware to remove the email list before forwarding it on anywhere else.

SECURITY:

One of the main issues is of security. Exposing your email list has the potential to land all the emails in the hands of SPAMMERS and SCAMMERS. You may not do this directly.

One of the ways this often happens is when a recipent is infected with viruses/trojans etc which allow the harvesting of emails – and your list gets picked up on that list. Every member on the list is then exposed to multiple problems.

This could be from a direct recipient or if one of the recipients forwards on to one or more addresses the list could end up on SPAM lists which can be sold far and wide.

Hackers love them as they can harvest the addresses and ‘sell them’ to marketers (both shady and bad – good marketers would not buy a list like this).

RESPECT:

By using BCC you are respecting peoples privacy and safety. You really do want to keep people happy.

How do you BCC an email message?

Most email clients have the option to BCC listed a few lines below the To: field.
Sometimes it may not listed by default. If it is not shown, check the help menu or the the program’s documentation.

Hint:

When BCC’ing recipients you should have something in the To: field,
This may be your own email address or one especially set up for the purpose.
This method not only hides the identity of the recipients, but enables you to confirm that the message was sent successfully.

Don’t forget to put a descriptive ‘Subject’ in the subject line – so the email is less likely to end up in SPAM filters and more likely to be read by the recipient.

You have downloaded one of our forms or reports or even our invoices as a PFD and it does not display.

Some information & forms are in Abode Acrobat PDF file format.

There could be a variety of reasons you are having trouble, some being:

The computer does not have a PDF reader installed and running,Download and Install one of the PDF readers suggested (or any of your choice)

The PDF reader is not up-to-date and unable to read the format this file is in,Download the latest version solves this most times.

The file may not have downloaded properly?Try downloading the file again. If this doesnt work – try clearing the computers CACHE, and then try again.

It downloaded and you have a Acrobat Reader screen, but document is blankUPDATE to the latest version should solve this.

Your Default Browser might be at faultthere are several alternative browsers to mention,Chrome (Google) FireFox, Opera.Another alternative to try is to SAVE the PDF to your local disk storage such as a hard drive, then use your file explorer to browse to that file and try loading it from there. (this will eliminate a problem with the browser.

Your Virus Checker or Browser might prevent Pop-upsSometimes certain software can block pop-ups from working (as security setting), On the website we display our PDF’s in a new window and this can sometimes be taken as a pop-up. You should allow this window to display. You could make the website a “trusted” site.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.Downloading a PDF Reader

Adobe PDF Readerhttp://www.adobe.com

If you do not have Acrobat Reader, please visit the Adobe Website for a free
download. Warning – the latest version is 41 mb in size.

Or tryFOXIT READER

If you prefer to have an also FREE but MUCH SMALLER DOWNLOAD (yet just as good) PDF
Reader why not try “Foxit Reader”.

It is only about 3.5 ~ 7 mb in download size (depending on package downloaded).

Get the latest version from here
Download Page at www.foxitsoftware.com
– we suggest you choose the installer package which suits your needs best.

I was having the same error on my computer as well. I picked up a comment on another forum website for an older problem and their problem seemed to be created by having the Windows Firewall Service disabled in the Services and Applications> Services section. I found when I set Windows Firewall service back to automatic and Started it, I was then able to go to the service Homegroup Listener and I changed that service to Automatic and was able to then Start Homegroup Listener.

This at least was a fix I could do without risk to my system as the changes would have been easy to reverse, but they worked for me. Maybe others can try that and post back here with their results.

Support for Windows Vista without any service packs installed ended on April 13, 2010.
To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure you’re running Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2). For more information, refer to this Microsoft web page: Support is ending for some versions of Windows

You will find this in your Admin Panel under Dashboard, Updates.
You should see a message like this example below

An updated version of WordPress is available.

You can update to WordPress 3.5.1 automatically or download the package and install it manually:

In this example the update is for version 3.5.1 and if you click on the link (on the one in your admin panel) it will load the information about this update in your default browser. The web page will list various things – take note of any warnings which may affect you.
The web page also has links to other helpful documentation if you are new.

BEFORE UPDATING WORDPRESS.

We recommend making sure all your plugins are updated prior to the WordPress update.WARNING: If you have a plugin such as AskApache Password Protect active which prevents changes to your files – you will need to temporarily disable it while doing these updates (and the same for WordPress).

For safety – make sure you have a child theme (for atahualpa) active(or you will lose any code updates/changes to the website).

Make a backup of your database. Your WordPress installation should have a plugin named WordPress Database Backup activated and you should be able to go to your Admin Panel in WordPress and access it via Admin panel Tools, Backup.

Make sure you have a BACKUP of any custom graphics in the WordPress Theme.
(these files are not backed up with the WordPress Database Backup plugin).

they should be in the path wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images
and Header Graphics in

wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/header

(We recommend an FTP program such as Filezilla to copy these files from your website.
It is well worth noting which folders they come from when you store them locally).

If you are unsure which are your custom graphics (they are located in a folder full of other graphics) then please ask your web designer (most times this will be Web South) and they should advise you.

Make sure you have your FTP pogram set up to access your WordPress website. (You will need access to the cPanel UserName and Password to do this).

Disable Plugins – (Optional)
You don’t have to do this, but every now and again a plugin hasn’t been updated to work with the latest version of WordPress, and causes a problem after the upgrade. Head to the Manage Plugins page in the Dashboard,
Take not of any plugins which are NOT Activated (but installed). Changing the “Bulk Actions” pull down menu to “Deactivate” and clicking “Apply”.

This one is a bit ‘Tricky’. DO you have any plugins loaded which prevent changes to your site? (makes the site much more secure – but if you forget that you have – you will most likely see some kind of error message).
If so – you will need to disable them for the moment.
eg AskApache Password Protect

UPDATE WORDPRESS

Update WordPress. We find that updating via Update Automatically in your Admin Panel works find (having taken note of any issues at the documentation Check the documentation for the WordPress update.

You will find this in your Admin Panel under Dashboard, Updates.
You should see a message like this example below

An updated version of WordPress is available.

You can update to WordPress 3.5.1 automatically or download the package and install it manually:

In this example the update is for version 3.5.1 and if you click on the link (on the one in your admin panel) it will load the information about this update in your default browser. The web page will list various things – take note of any warnings which may affect you.
The web page also has links to other helpful documentation if you are new.

BEFORE UPDATING WORDPRESS.

We recommend making sure all your plugins are updated prior to the WordPress update.WARNING: If you have a plugin such as AskApache Password Protect active which prevents changes to your files – you will need to temporarily disable it while doing these updates (and the same for WordPress).

For safety – make sure you have a child theme (for atahualpa) active(or you will lose any code updates/changes to the website).

Make a backup of your database. Your WordPress installation should have a plugin named WordPress Database Backup activated and you should be able to go to your Admin Panel in WordPress and access it via Admin panel Tools, Backup.

Make sure you have a BACKUP of any custom graphics in the WordPress Theme.
(these files are not backed up with the WordPress Database Backup plugin).

they should be in the path wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images
and Header Graphics in

wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/header

(We recommend an FTP program such as Filezilla to copy these files from your website.
It is well worth noting which folders they come from when you store them locally).

If you are unsure which are your custom graphics (they are located in a folder full of other graphics) then please ask your web designer (most times this will be Web South) and they should advise you.

Make sure you have your FTP pogram set up to access your WordPress website. (You will need access to the cPanel UserName and Password to do this).

Disable Plugins – (Optional)
You don’t have to do this, but every now and again a plugin hasn’t been updated to work with the latest version of WordPress, and causes a problem after the upgrade. Head to the Manage Plugins page in the Dashboard,
Take not of any plugins which are NOT Activated (but installed). Changing the “Bulk Actions” pull down menu to “Deactivate” and clicking “Apply”.

This one is a bit ‘Tricky’. DO you have any plugins loaded which prevent changes to your site? (makes the site much more secure – but if you forget that you have – you will most likely see some kind of error message).
If so – you will need to disable them for the moment.
eg AskApache Password Protect

UPDATE WORDPRESS

Update WordPress. We find that updating via Update Automatically in your Admin Panel works find (having taken note of any issues at the documentation Check the documentation for the WordPress update.

Graphics corrupted (only part load) and or CAPTCHA image not displaying,

There seems to be a problem with some (only some) computers accessing websites.
Initially we thought it was only from our hosted sites, as there was at the time no reference to the problem with various searches on the net.

We think we have finally been able to pin it down.

The problem: Graphics corrupted or not showing at all. This was concerning as all our web forms use graphics CAPTCHA to confirm a human entering info on the form.

It seems to be happening with computers that have Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 installed. (we dont know if it happens with other versions of Kaspersky – it may well be the antivirus product as well. We were able to confirm that by temporarily pausing protection the site behaved fine.

So far the only solutions are to ‘temporarily pausing protection’ – WE SAY THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

or

Upgrade to Kaspersky Internet Security 2013.

As this is a free upgrade we recommend doing this.
Find more information on Web South’s Internet Security Software page about software available.We recommend upgrading – please dont go away from Kaspersky because of this (It might not be totally thier problem, we don’t know. We do know they are a good security package.

We also recommend backing up your system before doing something like upgrading your software.

This message has been on the Web South cPanel admin page for a long time. It may not be relevant now.

One interesting thing has been that some members are now choosing to have different cPanel “themes (Skins)”.
One advantage I have seen from these themes is that I can deliver better news items direct to your cPanel.
Its not a problem for regular X theme members (where this message is going) – I just wanted to let you know there are other themes available.
A word of caution, some features may not be available in other themes (I notice that Fantastico is not shown in the “Light” RVSkins).

Login to the Admin Panel.
Select Purchase/Upgrade Hosting located under the Products menu.
Enter the domain name. The domain name must be registered and active.
Select Domain Manager from the Select the type of Website Hosting drop down.
Select an existing or create a new customer.
Tick the check box to accept the terms and conditions.
Click Submit Hosting Order.
More Information
The Domain Manager product allows you to complete the following functions:
URL Redirection – point your domain name to any web address.
DNS Zone Management – create, edit and delete your domain name zone file, including A, CNAME and MX records.
Alias Email Accounts – Point an email address linked to the domain name to another email address.

Note: It may also be related to WordPress versions from 3.4 on but this is unclear.

“Ajax Event Calendar requires a city value for the Timezone setting.Not all cities are listed. Can’t find your city in the timezone dropdown?… Search for your standardized timezone..Update Blog Settings“.

First: Find your Timezone string.

You should be able to use this resource:

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Drill down until you find your closest city.

for instance here is ours

Australia/Adelaide (Not a bad idea to COPY this so you dont make mistakes later)

Next:

When you go to the Admin Panel Settings Page you don’t find a place to choose or enter the City valueIt is not normally exposed

First enter the URL manually to see ALL WordPress settings – TAKE GREAT CAUTION HERE!!!

Win 7 (1)

I was having the same error on my computer as well. I picked up a comment on another forum website for an older problem and their problem seemed to be created by having the Windows Firewall Service disabled in the Services and Applications> Services section. I found when I set Windows Firewall service back to automatic and Started it, I was then able to go to the service Homegroup Listener and I changed that service to Automatic and was able to then Start Homegroup Listener.

This at least was a fix I could do without risk to my system as the changes would have been easy to reverse, but they worked for me. Maybe others can try that and post back here with their results.

Win Vista (1)

Support for Windows Vista without any service packs installed ended on April 13, 2010.
To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure you’re running Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2). For more information, refer to this Microsoft web page: Support is ending for some versions of Windows

You will find this in your Admin Panel under Dashboard, Updates.
You should see a message like this example below

An updated version of WordPress is available.

You can update to WordPress 3.5.1 automatically or download the package and install it manually:

In this example the update is for version 3.5.1 and if you click on the link (on the one in your admin panel) it will load the information about this update in your default browser. The web page will list various things – take note of any warnings which may affect you.
The web page also has links to other helpful documentation if you are new.

BEFORE UPDATING WORDPRESS.

We recommend making sure all your plugins are updated prior to the WordPress update.WARNING: If you have a plugin such as AskApache Password Protect active which prevents changes to your files – you will need to temporarily disable it while doing these updates (and the same for WordPress).

For safety – make sure you have a child theme (for atahualpa) active(or you will lose any code updates/changes to the website).

Make a backup of your database. Your WordPress installation should have a plugin named WordPress Database Backup activated and you should be able to go to your Admin Panel in WordPress and access it via Admin panel Tools, Backup.

Make sure you have a BACKUP of any custom graphics in the WordPress Theme.
(these files are not backed up with the WordPress Database Backup plugin).

they should be in the path wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images
and Header Graphics in

wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/header

(We recommend an FTP program such as Filezilla to copy these files from your website.
It is well worth noting which folders they come from when you store them locally).

If you are unsure which are your custom graphics (they are located in a folder full of other graphics) then please ask your web designer (most times this will be Web South) and they should advise you.

Make sure you have your FTP pogram set up to access your WordPress website. (You will need access to the cPanel UserName and Password to do this).

Disable Plugins – (Optional)
You don’t have to do this, but every now and again a plugin hasn’t been updated to work with the latest version of WordPress, and causes a problem after the upgrade. Head to the Manage Plugins page in the Dashboard,
Take not of any plugins which are NOT Activated (but installed). Changing the “Bulk Actions” pull down menu to “Deactivate” and clicking “Apply”.

This one is a bit ‘Tricky’. DO you have any plugins loaded which prevent changes to your site? (makes the site much more secure – but if you forget that you have – you will most likely see some kind of error message).
If so – you will need to disable them for the moment.
eg AskApache Password Protect

UPDATE WORDPRESS

Update WordPress. We find that updating via Update Automatically in your Admin Panel works find (having taken note of any issues at the documentation Check the documentation for the WordPress update.

Note: It may also be related to WordPress versions from 3.4 on but this is unclear.

“Ajax Event Calendar requires a city value for the Timezone setting.Not all cities are listed. Can’t find your city in the timezone dropdown?… Search for your standardized timezone..Update Blog Settings“.

First: Find your Timezone string.

You should be able to use this resource:

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Drill down until you find your closest city.

for instance here is ours

Australia/Adelaide (Not a bad idea to COPY this so you dont make mistakes later)

Next:

When you go to the Admin Panel Settings Page you don’t find a place to choose or enter the City valueIt is not normally exposed

First enter the URL manually to see ALL WordPress settings – TAKE GREAT CAUTION HERE!!!